La Scena Musicale

Tuesday, 29 December 2015

Holiday Potpourri

Holiday PotpourriPleasures of my 2015 Holiday Season? Friends and Family, Eat, Drink and be Merry. Good Reads, and of course some Wonderful Music.
~ Joseph So

While I'm not exactly a cold-weather fan, December remains a favourite time of year for me. All the trappings of the Holiday Season, main thoroughfares of Toronto like Bloor and Yonge brilliantly lit by twinkling Christmas lights, not to mention the excuse to indulge guilt-free (relatively) all the food and drink meant for this time of year. And above all, it's the opportunity to reconnect with family and friends from near and far. December is incomplete for me if I don't attend a Messiah or two. As usual this year, it was the Toronto Symphony Orchestra's mega version with big-voiced soloists and huge forces of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. Tt was followed the next day by the unconventional vision of Against the Grain Theatre's staged version. I ended up liking both. The well loved TSO version will always be dear to my heart, but I also see the merits in AtG's much more intimate approach with its spontaneous and heart-felt qualities. Here's a link to my review - http://blog.scena.org/2015/12/a-tales-of-two-messiahs-toronto.html

I traveled to New York for a quickie pre-Christmas family visit. If Toronto in December is beautiful with all the Christmas decorations, the Big Apple is positively spectacular. Of course the magnificent tree in the Rockerfeller Centre is a highlight. As I walked north on Columbus Circle towards the Metropolitan Opera, the decorated trees were breathtaking. The Die Fledermaus I saw was typical Holiday fare at the Met - easy entertainment, beautiful sets and costumes, nothing too challenging for an audience set on enjoying the seasonal festivities. This smart-looking two-year old production epitomizes what used to be the standard aesthetic at the Met, an old fashioned opulence that the conservative segment of the audience finds endearing. Sung in English together with newly written English dialogue, I almost felt like I was seeing a Broadway show. I was told that in this revival, the dialogue have already been cut, but it still lasted three hours and forty-five minutes with two intermissions - and Met intermissions are typically 30 minutes each.

Metropolitan Opera at Night (Photo: Joseph So)

Stage director Jeremy Sams and dialogue writer Douglas Carter Beane tried their best to make it funny, but the humour is a bit on the heavy side. Part of the problem is the huge size of the house (3,800 seat plus 200 standing room) - when you can't see the facial expressions of the actors, doing comedy becomes problematic. The Frosch routine in Act 3 was only intermittently funny, and often off-colour. The set and costumes by Robert Jones are gorgeous, particularly Act Two. The Dec. 18 performance I saw had fine singing. I particularly liked the Adele of British soprano Lucy Crowe, who sang with lovely tone and she acted up a storm. (Incidentally, Crowe was ill late in the rehearsal period and opening night was sung by Canadian soprano Mireille Asselin, who scored a huge success.) Paulo Szot was excellent as Falke. I am more used to a baritone Eisenstein, but British tenor Toby Spence was very good. American soprano Susanna Philips acted well and sang beautifully as Rosalinda except for her strained top register. As a result her Csardas wasn't what it could have been. Given the huge amount of dialogue, the singers didn't have an easy time trying to project their speaking voice into the 4000 capacity house. James Levine conducted from his specially designed motorized chair, and he didn't come onstage for curtain calls. On this evening, he conducted a spirited overture, and with plenty of oomph the rest of the long evening, giving no hint that he's now in frail health. Over all, an enjoyable if predictable evening at the opera.

Die Fledermaus curtain call

The Toronto Operetta Theatre's holiday offering this year is Sigmund Romberg's The Student Prince. Staged on the small stage of the Jane Mallett Theatre, it's not on a grand scale, but it's never less than engaging, with pretty costumes, deft directing and fine singing, led by tenor Ernesto Ramirez as Prince Karl Franz and soprano Jennifer Taverner as the barmaid Kathie. Here's my review of the opening matinee performance - http://www.musicaltoronto.org/2015/12/28/scrutiny/

TOT Student Prince Curtain Call (Photo: Joseph So)

Even though this December has been unseasonably warm, cold weather is coming as I write this - we had freezing rain last evening in Toronto and today is really too unpleasant to do much outside. Perfect time to curl up next to the fire with a book. I have to confess I read a lot less than I used to these days, and what I do read usually is connected with music journalism. However, this book did catch my eye -Primates of Park Avenue by Wednesday Martin (New York: Simon & Schuster 2015). I first read a positive review of it in the New York Times that piqued my interest. Martin has a doctorate in primatology, a subfield of anthropology. As a retired academic with a 35 year career in anthropology, I admit I was really curious about this book. Martin uses the anthropological (more specifically the primate behavioural) paradigm to deconstruct her experience as a newcomer to the circle of rich child-bearing women of the Manhattan Upper East Side, and she did it well. For a piece of light reading, it's very readable and quite funny in places. Perhaps not for everybody, but her keen observation on the female of the species is in many ways spot on and amusing.

Cover of Primates of Park Avenue

Lots of great movies this month. No, I haven't seen Star Wars, but then I am not really into this genre. I did see The Danish Girlhowever. Eddie Redmayne gives a stupendous performance, and I wouldn't be surprised if he wins another Oscar. But as a movie, I find it strangely unsatisfying. Based on a book by David Ebershoff who in turn based it on the lives of two Danish painters Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener, there's a lot about the lives of these two people that are left out of the movie. There were some objections to the casting of Redmayne from the transgender community, but given that he has done such a tremendous acting job, the complaints seem to be muted. More serious is the various facts and inaccuracies about the life and death of Lili Elbe. Here's the article from Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Danish_Girl_(film)

Poster of new movie The Danish Girl

I rarely venture into anything that's non-classical, but this Christmas I was given a gift of a CD Single, a cute, newly produced song called Now It's Christmas, composed and sung by two Canadian musicians, vocalist Sidney Fontaine and lyricist Charlie Gallium. I understand they are classically trained musicians. The song has a nice, catchy tune, with a pronounced beat in the arrangements (all three versions), well delivered by Ms. Fontaine, who has a nice pop voice. The lyrics is a bit sad but it's not really reflected in the music itself. There's a bonus track on the CD called There Goes My Happy, arranged and sung by Fontaine. This content is available on iTunes.

Now It's Christmas (CD Single) (Photo: Sidney Fontaine)

I am now looking forward to two more musical events to round out my Holiday season. On New Year's Eve is the operatic concert, Bravissimo! at Roy Thomson Hall. It's produced by Canadian impresario Attila Glatz of Attila Glatz Concert Productions who's also responsible for Salute to Vienna on New Year's Day. I've been going to these concerts from the very beginning - light entertainment with a program of warhorses, delivered by good singers and a pick-up orchestra. All a bit predictable, but always enjoyable. Once in awhile you get to hear famous soloists you don't get to hear in the opera houses on this side of the pond. An example was Wagnerian tenor Andreas Schager last year. He is a big name in Berlin and a Barenboim protegee, with Tristan and Parsifal in his repertoire! This year, we have two famous Canadian women, soprano Karina Gauvin and mezzo Krisztina Szabo, both at the top of their careers. I have no idea of what's on the program, but I am willing to bet that there's going to be some Handel and Mozart (Gauvin's specialty), and it will likely end with 'Libiamo, libiamo' from La traviata. The maestro is Italian Marco Guidarini. http://www.roythomson.com/

Mezzo Krisztina Szabo (Photo: Bo Huang)

If you are not tired out from partying all night, by all means to to Salute to Vienna, an afternoon divertissement of ballet and operetta Viennese style. Hungarian maestro Imre Kollar is at the helm leading the Strauss Symphony of Canada, another pick-up band. Polish soprano Katarzyna Dondalska and Austrian tenor Franz Gurtelschmied are the soloists. Joining them are dancers from the Hungarian National Ballet and the International Champion Ballroom Dancers. This popular event is invariably sold out, so do give the box office a call or go to their website. http://www.roythomson.com/eventdetail/Salute2016

This Week in Montréal: December 28 to January 3

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Jean-Michel Grondin

Organ at
Notre-Dame BasilicaIn 2016, the Casavant organ in Notre-Dame will
be 125 years old. With its 92 stops, it’s one of the largest in any North
American church. Every Sunday the “Florilèges de l’orgue liturgique”, musical
anthologies played by principal organist Pierre Grandmaison or assistant organist
Martin Boucher, take place from 10:30 to 10:55, just before Mass. From December
27 to 31 at 2:30 pm, Pierre Grandmaison will play a concert entitled “Prenez
place à l’orgue – Spécial Noël” to an audience seated in the gallery. Only 60
places are available, so we recommend you reserve. www.basiliquenotredame.ca

Oragn at St.
Joseph’s OratoryAll Montrealers have seen the oratory dome from
afar. But how many have actually been inside? They’d find a splendid Beckerath
organ inaugurated in 1960 that has five keyboards, 78 stops and 5,811 pipes. On
Sunday afternoons you can hear a free concert at 3:30 pm, with an accompanying
screening. For the holidays, the series Noël
à l’orgue will present Noël français
with Jean-Michel Grondin on January 3. www.saint-joseph.org

Luminothérapie –
December 10 to January 31
In Montréal, visual arts are a large part of the city’s personality and way of
life. The city is flush with art expositions all year long, most of which are
free. To make up for the short winter days and brighten up the long winter
nights, check out Luminothérapie, an interactive, colourful, and hypnotic
festival of light, and best of all – it’s free! A great activity to share with
friends and family. www.quartierdesspectacles.com

Visual Arts in Montréal
At the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, discover a long unknown part of
Canadian and Montréalaise history with the exhibition “Une modernité des années 1920“ about the artists of the Beaver
Hall Group, on display until January 31 2016. www.mbam.qc.ca
Until January 10 2016 the Musée d’art contemporain (MAC) is hosting an
exhibition on the career of American artists Dana Schutz, whose work in the
last ten years has had a profound impact on contemporary painting. Drawing on
the avant-garde movements of the early 20th century, synthetic cubism, and
German expressionism, Schutz’s very colourful art is a fusion of figuration and
abstraction. www.macm.org

Also at the MAC is Grosse Fatigue,
a 13-minute long video installation by Camille Henrot, winner of the Silver
Lion for promising young artists at the Venice Biennale 2013. This French
artist presents a history of the universe combining elements from the history
of science to stories about the creation of the world from various traditions
and cultures.

Until January 10 Patrick Bernatchez will present an exhibition about
works taken from two main collections of his repertoire, Chrysalides and Lost in Time.
The public will discover the essence of his work, which deals with issues of
life and death, decomposition, entropy, and the four seasons as well as the
multiple dimensions of time. www.macm.org

Until April 10 2016 see the exhibition “Montreal through the eyes of Vittorio: 50 Years of City Life and
Graphic Design” at the McCord Museum. This exhibition deals with
Italian-born artist Vittorio Fiorucci, whose career spanned 50 years. Arriving
in Montreal in 1951, there he discovered his vocation through comic books,
photography, decoupage and collages. Through the career of this humoristic
creator the exhibition traces the cultural history of Quebec from the 1950s to
the 2000s through 125 posters, photographs, illustrations and comic strips. www.mccord-museum.qc.ca

Need an idea for something to do with children between 3 and 9? Take
them to see Mister Rabbit’s Circus at
the McCord Museum.In this
exhibition, inspired by the best-selling Mister Rabbit books (published by Les
400 coups), children will be able to follow an investigation to find the
missing circus equipment on opening night and in doing so discover the 200 toys
and objects in the museum’s collections. www.mccord-museum.qc.ca

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La Scena Musicale is a monthly Canadian classical, opera, jazz and world music magazine published in English and French by La Scène musicale/The Music Scene, a non-profit charity dedicated to the promotion of music and the arts. La Scena Musicale's award-winning website SCENA.org has been a world leader of classical music and arts news since 1996. The LSM Blog is the place for commentary and news on music and the arts in Canada and around the world. Publisher: Wah Keung Chan; ISSN 1925-9700